The State of Mobile Monetization: Market Trends and SDKs

With the app market continuing to grow both in the number of apps and capitalization, mobile app owners have to think about monetizing their solutions. But what are the most effective methods and necessary components for a successful monetization strategy? To help app developers access insights, the Postindustria team pulled together research on trends and technologies that define mobile in 2020 and beyond.

What's inside?

Essential app monetization trends and predictions

As the mobile app market becomes increasingly competitive, marketers must invent new ways to attract and hold customers' attention. Both advertisers and app owners should stay on top of trends and technologies, ensuring the brand's and product's competitive performance. In this research, publishers will explore several monetization trends for 2020, including in-app advertising, in-app purchases, moving into the freemium business model, and working through mediation platforms.

However, keeping up with trends is just one part of the strategy. Another thing to consider is choosing the right SDKs for efficient monetization. To bring value, app monetization possibilities have to be more creative and diverse. This is what the second - and most essential - part of the research uncovers.

Detailed analysis of mobile SDKs

Based on our research of mobile monetization SDKs offered by 50+ leading AdTech companies, Postindustria suggests a list of key features and opportunities a modern mobile monetization SDK should have. Various ad formats, header bidding support, open measurement, open RTB, aligning with MRAID and VAST tags, mediation support and friendliness, compliance with GDPR and CCPA, and server-side configuration are just a few elements among an extensive list of others. In addition, from an app developer and mobile publisher's perspective, keep an eye on SDK's modular structure, documentation availability, ease of downloads, demo app for SDKs, release frequency, and HB setup tool.

Top 30 SDKs for app monetization

We ranked every SDK according to its key features and accessibility for publishers. As a result, we’ve composed a fair and transparent rating that looks as following:

1. FB Audience Network
2. MoPub
3. AdColony
4. AdMob
5. Smaato
6. Unity Ads
7. AirPush
8. Fyber
9. Mintegral
10. Yandex
11. Verizon
12. Pubmatic
13. LoopMe
14. Tapjoy
15. OpenX
16. Chocolate Platform
17. InMobi
18. IronSource
19. Vungle
20. StartApp
21. Chartboost
22. myTarget
23. EpomApps
24. TappX
25. YouAppi
26. Appodeal
27. AdForm
28. AdButler
29. Verve
30. Amazon

We hope this research, powered by industry experts, consultants, and Postindustria's expertise in AdTech will help mobile developers and publishers pinpoint the SDK that matches their apps perfectly!

Retrieve a full download of The State of Mobile Monetization: Market Trends and SDK Analysis here.